Matthew Perry’s last words were instructions to his live-in assistant – one of five people charged in the actor’s ketamine-related death last year – to administer the drug to which he’d become addicted.
The 54-year-old Friends star, who was found dead in his hot tub last October from “the acute effects of ketamine”, reportedly told Kenneth Iwamasa to “shoot me up with a big one” during his final hours, according to court documents obtained by NBC News this week.
Iwamasa, 59, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. According to authorities, he admitted to repeatedly injecting the actor with ketamine in the weeks leading up to his death, despite having no medical training, and did so multiple times on the day Perry died.
On October 28, Iwamasa allegedly injected Perry with the dissociative anaesthetic three different times – at 8.30am, again at 12.45pm, and “approximately 40 minutes later”, according to the details laid out in Iwamasa’s plea agreement.
“Victim M.P. [Matthew Perry] asked defendant to prepare the jacuzzi for Victim M.P. and told defendant, ‘shoot me up with a big one’, referring to another shot of ketamine,” the document reads.
After doing so, Iwamasa left the house to run errands only to find the actor face down in the hot tub upon his return.
Perry, who was open about his lifelong struggles with substance abuse, was thought to be sober at the time of his death, but had been undergoing doctor-supervised ketamine infusion therapy in a bid to treat anxiety and depression.
However, a toxicology report released in December concluded the fatal dose of ketamine “could not be from that infusion therapy”, as Perry’s last-known session had been a week and a half before his death. The drug has a half-life of no more than four hours.
Earlier this week, a source close to Perry told Us Weekly that his friends and family were “blindsided” and “saddened” to learn of Iwamasa’s involvement in his death.
According to the insider, Iwamasa became Perry’s assistant around June 2022, during a time when things were “already chaotic.”
“Matthew wasn’t actually sober. He had been going in and out of sobriety. And multiple people were helping to take care of him,” the source said.
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Fans in China mourn death of Friends star Matthew Perry
Fans in China mourn death of Friends star Matthew Perry
The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced on Thursday that Iwamasa had been charged in Perry’s death, along with four others – Dr Salvador Plasencia, Dr Mark Chavez, drug dealer Jasveen Sangha (better known as “The Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles”) and director-producer Erik Fleming, who served as a broker for Sangha.
Using Iwamasa as a go-between, Perry paid at least US$55,000 to Plasencia in the month leading up to his death, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement. He also allegedly paid an estimated US$12,000 to Fleming for two drugs deals with Sangha – including one just days before his death, which produced the ketamine that killed Perry.
Plasencia, who allegedly instructed Iwamasa on how to inject the drug, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
Chavez has agreed to plead guilty to one count of the same charge, for which he faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine as well as one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Sangha, who authorities said is linked to a prior fatal overdose, faces nine counts in connection with Perry’s death, including conspiracy to distribute ketamine. She pleaded not guilty on Thursday.